Long the drink of choice for American humorists, Irish playwrights, Don Draper types, and various heads of state, when whiskey passed vodka in sales last year, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the spirit is having a moment.
But the movement goes deeper than that. Whiskey isn’t just a good for consumption or a means toward intoxication: It’s a collector’s item, an investment portfolio, and an incredibly valuable commodity. “Whiskey as an investment is being driven by an escalating international demand, combined with an ever-decreasing supply of rare and aged single malt,” the Whisky Corporation’s Stephen Notman told CNN last year. This international demand and decreasing supply has driven serious returns: According to materials provided by the Platinum Whisky Investment Fund, the world’s first whiskey fund, the top whiskeys have appreciated in value anywhere from 130% to, among the 100 best, a staggering 230% from 2011-2013. Interested? The buy-in for the Platinum Whisky Investment Fund’s only a cool quarter-million.
